Things Florida Waterfront Homeowners Should Expect From Their Landscape Partner
If you’re reading this from your lounge chair overlooking a stunning Longboat Key water view, surrounded by a thriving lawn and tropical plants, can we come over? Save us a lounge chair.
If your Longboat Key landscaping is struggling, and your view isn’t everything it could be, we should still come over, and get right to work.
There are specific landscape challenges for waterfront homes, from windy conditions to salt spray to nutrient-poor sandy soil.
Homeowners of high-end coastal homes have high expectations when it comes to customer service, too.
What should you expect from a Florida waterfront landscaping service? Experts who know what plants thrive in challenging coastal conditions. Design pros who can beautifully frame your stunning views. Irrigation experts who will adjust your system to work well in challenging conditions. Proactive communicators who you can always reach with questions or concerns. Design and maintenance perfectionists who know the value of your waterfront property and how to preserve it.
Let’s learn more about Florida coastal landscaping needs, including:
-
Your Landscaping Partner Should Know How to Protect from Storm Damage
-
Florida Coastal Landscaping Needs: Solving Perplexing Puzzles
You Need Horticulture Experts Who Know Coastal Plant Needs
Not every plant or type of grass will thrive in challenging coastal conditions. You need Florida waterfront landscaping experts who know the ones that will.
One Tropical Gardens customer had lots of salt spray blowing over the sea wall, and their lawn struggled.
Turns out they had zoysia sod, which couldn’t stand up to the salt.
Tropical Gardens crews replaced the failing zoysia lawn with Bimini
Bermuda, which has a high natural tolerance for sea salt, coastal winds, and even occasional storm surges that briefly cover the grass. It’s a great choice for Florida coastal properties. Now the lawn is thriving.
Knowledge of Salt-tolerant Plants
When your coastal property landscaping is first installed, it looks great.
You’re watering frequently while your new plants get established, so that’s diluting the salt spray that naturally floats in on the breeze.
Then, after three months or so, you’re watering less as your new plants have settled in.
The salt starts to build back up. (Cue the ominous music.)
If your plants aren’t designed for these salty conditions, they’ll struggle, and eventually die.
That’s a tragedy that can be avoided if your landscaping company knows what salt-tolerant plants to use in the first place. Knowledge of salt-tolerant plants is among the essential services for waterfront landscapers.
A few of our favorite choices:
Sand Cordgrass
This Florida native is great for erosion control, is very tolerant of salt spray, requires no fertilizer once it’s established, and its seeds provide excellent food for local birds.
It’s a large, evergreen, clumping grass that grows into dense mounds about 3 to 5 feet tall and wide. It has an elegant, fountain-like shape.
Railroad Vine
A fast-growing evergreen perennial commonly found on beach dunes, railroad vine is among the best plants for coastal Florida.
Its flowers are large, funnel-shaped and purple to purplish-pink in color. The showy flowers attract bees and butterflies. And it’s perfectly happy in your waterfront landscaping.
Green Island Ficus
This award-winning shrub is prized for its low-maintenance qualities, including salt tolerance. Its deep green glossy leaves contrast well with other foliage types and colors.
Silver Buttonwood
This beauty has velvety-soft leaves dusted with a silvery-gray color that doesn’t distract from your water view. It can be easily shaped into a stunning hedge, an accent plant or a small tree, depending on your exact needs. Bonus: they’re salt tolerant.
Native Florida plants are always a good bet, as they can often shrug off the salt. They’ve lived here all along, so they’re used to it.
Some of our favorites for Florida coastal landscaping needs:
- Beach Sunflowers
- Muhly Grass
- Oleander
- Saw Palmetto
- Sea Grape
- Fakahatchee Grass
- Firebush
Your Landscaping Partner Should Know How to Protect from Storm Damage
Florida waterfront properties are more vulnerable than inland landscaping to storm damage. They’re exposed to whipping winds, storm surges, and saltwater.
Your landscaping partner should know the precautions to take before a storm and the steps to take after a storm to protect your waterfront property, including these essential services for waterfront landscapers:
Trim Dead and Dying Branches of Trees and Palms
Your landscaping company should remove any dead or weak branches that could break off and go flying like missiles in high winds.
Experts know to only trim palm fronds that are completely brown and lifeless. Fronds with even a hint of green are still crucial for the tree's health.
Shrubs should be trimmed before a windstorm, too. Overgrown shrubs are more likely to get damaged in high winds.
Replace Nutrients That Were Washed Away
Extra storm surge water can flush all the nutrients from your soil, so fertilizing after storm damage is crucial.
Tropical Gardens crews apply slow-release granular fertilizer to depleted lawns. But if
another storm is expected, they know to hold off on the fertilizing. The nutrients will just get washed away.
Prevent Salt Damage
Saltwater storm surge soaks landscaping, drawing moisture out of plants’ roots, which dehydrates them.
Partner with Florida waterfront landscaping services pros who know how to act quickly to prevent saltwater damage. They’ll suggest you turn on your irrigation system and run it every day for two weeks.
The fresh water helps push the damaging salt water deeper into the soil, below the root line.
This strategy has saved many Tropical Gardens customers’ lawns, preventing the need for sod replacement.
Bonus pro tip: all that extra irrigation flushes nutrients from the soil, so fertilizing is extra important to revive the lawn.
Florida Coastal Landscaping Needs: Solving Perplexing Puzzles
Coastal properties have different needs than inland landscaping, and sometimes there’s a puzzle to solve.
You need landscaping pros willing to solve the occasional mystery, with or without those cool Sherlock Holmes hats.
One of our Longboat Key clients had an irrigation system and new sod installed after the 2024 hurricanes.
Despite attentive care, their sod struggled.
We figured out that it gets windier on their corner coastal lot in the early morning hours. That’s when their irrigation system runs.
When the irrigation system ran, wind blew the irrigation stream away from the lawn and out toward the water, missing the grass.
Our irrigation techs made some adjustments and the sod is well watered and thriving.
Speaking of irrigation…
Waterfront Properties Need Irrigation Experts
Irrigation systems on waterfront properties often require frequent adjustments and inspections. Make sure your landscaping partner has irrigation experts on board familiar with the quirks of irrigating waterfront properties. It’s among the essential services for waterfront landscapers.
It’s always a great idea to have an irrigation system with perfect head to head coverage, but it’s even more important if you live near the water.
Remember what we said earlier about turning on your irrigation system daily to flush salty storm surge from your waterfront landscaping? You'll want dependable irrigation with perfect coverage to make this strategy work.
They Should Know How to Frame a Stunning View
Haphazard landscape design can end up blocking the stunning view that drew you to this waterfront home in the first place.
Landscape expectations for waterfront homeowners include preserving the value of their luxury coastal properties.
Partner with skilled design pros who know how to maximize your view, by framing it with tropical Sabal palms or coconut palms.
A skilled and creative landscape designer can also use plants to hide less-lovely views with plants. Or you might want a bit of privacy from the neighbors directly across the canal from you.
Skilled Florida waterfront landscape design offers precious privacy without blocking your beautiful view.
The right plants in the right spots can emphasize what you want to see and hide what you don’t. But you need knowledgeable pros on the job to do this right.
You Want a Full-Service Landscaping Company
Hire one company that can handle all your landscaping needs. Then, you can relax and hit your waterfront lounge chair.
Yes, your waterfront property landscaping has needs specific to your location, from salt-tolerant plants to view-framing palms.
But you probably have other needs, too.
Do they install landscape lighting? Can they take care of your water features? Do they have a top-notch turf care program? Will they smoothly transition from designing and installing your luxury coastal landscaping to taking care of it with a comprehensive landscape maintenance plan? Wouldn’t a flickering fire feature be great at your waterfront?
When you hire one company that can handle all your landscaping needs, things go super smoothly. Less work and worry for you.
Expect Customer Service Perfectionists
When you call us at Tropical Gardens, you’ll hear a friendly voice on the other end. It’s rare you’ll get voicemail. If you do, leave a message and we’ll get right back to you.
You’ll have direct phone numbers for several of us, from your project manager to the company owner.
When you email us, we’re on it.
And when it’s time to partner with us for your waterfront landscaping needs, we make it easy. We’ll meet you at home, on your schedule. Initial consultations let us get to know your property, and you’ll get to know our skilled and friendly team. Then, we handle all the details.
Moving forward, you’ll have your own project manager, your one-stop person for any questions or needs.
You’re our most important customer.
Need Florida Waterfront Landscaping Services? Talk to Us
Luxury waterfront properties have a variety of specific needs, from design to installation to maintenance.
Leave it all to us.
Tropical Gardens offers expert waterfront landscaping services in Longboat Key that will make you want to spend every spare minute outside.
We can’t wait to get started.
Give us a call or fill out our form today! Our team of landscape experts can’t wait to help you add salt-tolerant plants you’ll love, frame that fantastic view and tweak your irrigation system to meet all your waterfront property’s challenges.
You deserve that view. Let’s perfect it.
